


Information Acquisition

by Ylevihs



Series: How Not to Fall [34]
Category: Fallen Hero Series - Malin Rydén, Fallen Hero: Rebirth (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, Farm Headcanons, M/M, Retribution Spoilers, canon typical paranoia, regina - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-02-01 00:28:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21295982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ylevihs/pseuds/Ylevihs
Summary: Daniel reveals the methods used in information gathering.
Relationships: Herald/Sidestep (Fallen Hero), Ortega/Chen
Series: How Not to Fall [34]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1327892
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	Information Acquisition

Conversation was happening.

The animal hind-brain responsible for keeping the human body alive was registering sound. Voices, pitched up and down and words. A rhythm and a cadence that was familiar. Muffled through eighty three leagues and from the bottom of deep frigid water. What was the old rhyme? Lyrics from some half heard song, the lake never gives up her dead.

Some conscious part of his mind unhelpfully pointed out that they were a long way away from Superior. That he was still sitting in. The rest of Richard chose to ignore that, sitting somewhere beneath the surface, feeling like any stray motion was going to send him to drowning.

Keep it together.

Keep it together and focus on something. Anything. He could do this. He. They’d talked about it. He and Dr. Finch. Breathe even though it hurt. In and out and make it a choice. Decide to do it. In and out. Be in control of something small. In. Focus. The weave of the table cloth, a small dark stain on the white fabric and the steam seams from where it had been washed and folded and. Pressure. On his knee? Just a brief thing. Out. Pressure around his shoulders. Arm. An arm over his shoulders, that’s what that was. Okay. Was that okay? In.

“Richard?” the name dug into the hollows spaces of his sinuses and pulled. “Richie, hey,” Daniel’s voice was low, not trying to bring attention to them both. Out.

In. “No,” not even sure of what he was denying. Everything maybe. No, this wasn’t happening. No, they hadn’t found her. No, they hadn’t taken a picture of her, clear as fucking day, with her people around her and just. No. The date on the note didn’t mean anything. No, they hadn’t figured out. Out. No, he wasn’t okay.

Daniel’s concern hit like a knife to the sternum. Too sharp and too sudden. In and he should get some air outside, there’s too much going on in here, too many people looks almost like a panic attack. Was he nodding? He felt like he was nodding. “We’re gonna get some air,” it sounded normal. Conversational. A low voice said something back but Richard wasn’t anywhere he could hear it. If he had half a fraction more of himself together, he might have registered that Daniel had only vocalized some of that. The rest had been in his head. Daniel’s head.

Cool outside. Cold if the wind decided to turn. At least, as cold as it could get in Los Diablos. Out. Los Diablos gave up her dead whenever she damn well pleased. Years too soon and years too late and some never at all and others every day.

“Just breathe Richie, nice and slow,” gentle words, half whispered. A quick few steps away from the restaurant doors. Daniel’s hand on his center back. Lower back. Over where the break had been and Daniel’s thoughts were fluttering over that.

“Ha,” bitter. “Working on it,” forced. In. In and striking sparks against a hard swell of anger. “What were the two of you thinking?” because there was no way Daniel did this on his own; Richard would have seen it coming from a mile away. Daniel was getting better at guarding his thoughts and Richard was learning the restraint it took not to constantly poke through his mind, but this? This would have lit up his brain, sunlight beaming off the ocean. He would have seen this coming. Should have. “Was it all Ortega?” that would make sense. Never could tell what that mind was up to and more and more often it was up to things that made Richard’s organs dance in his throat. Ortega would have made the suggestion and Daniel was too.

Something unfamiliar in what was radiating out. Strong and strange enough to grab his attention and. Daniel’s hand left his back and appeared on his shoulder.

“Don’t do that,” firm. No, not just firm. Solid. Not a plea, a command. 

“What?” Richard blinked, forced into what could pass as mental sobriety by the sudden shift in tone. Daniel had started hovering a few inches off the ground, bringing him almost to eye level. 

“You haven’t called him Ortega in a long time,” as if that was supposed to be enough of an explanation. It was. Richard didn’t know exactly when he’d shifted into first name territory, but it had happened. Solidly enough that Daniel had picked up on it, which meant Ricardo had absolutely picked up on it as well. “It means a lot to him that–,” that Richard was showing signs of trusting him at last. Oh, they were not going down that rabbit hole. Not right now at least. Richard brushed the hand off his shoulder and almost immediately regretted the loss of contact. Too late.

“Don’t change the subject,” harsher than he meant the words to be but they were out now and nothing to be done about them. “Do you even care about the kind of risk you both put yourselves in getting that picture?”

“Because we aren’t at risk every day, anyway?” Daniel frowned, eyes narrowing. “No, I don’t,” The fact that he was right, being a Ranger wasn’t exactly the safest occupation around, conveniently sailed by Richard’s brain. The part of his thoughts that had reminded him of his breathing exercises waved as it went by. True, Herald and Charge could reasonably get injured at any time during a job. That was the point.

“Not like this, you’re not. If you and Ricardo keep putting your noses where they don’t belong, the people in charge are going to decide you’re not worth keeping around. If you get too hard to keep on a leash they’ll put you down,” perhaps it would be an accident. People died in crashes all the time. Or one of them gets sent to deal with a villain and, weird, the communications system went down and back up just never arrived in time. An ambulance just never arrived in time. Maybe there’s something behind the scenes and there’s a sudden resignation. Never heard from again. ‘Quiet retirement’ people would mutter. Tragic mistakes, with no one to blame. Happened all the time in Los Diablos.

“Who’s,” Daniel didn’t finish, rubbing a hand over his mouth as if to silence himself. The desire to keep arguing back was strong but was getting forced down. Swallowed. Daniel didn’t quite fold, but the topic was getting put on a shelf for later. Preferably when they weren’t out in the open. Richard made a short motion with his head and Daniel agreeably floated closer, the two of them half turning into an alleyway. “It was both of us. Ricardo wanted to get you and Chen, both of you, something that proved…,”

That word wriggled around in Richard’s brain. Proved. Proved they were committed. “You don’t have to prove anything to me,” he sounded unsteady even to himself, words uneven and soft. It made his stomach roll that his own insecurities were making them feel like. Like they had to. He reached and was allowed to fold his palm against Daniel’s. Allowed to hold his hand between them.

“It was my idea to show you that we knew your,” and Daniel paused on the word. “Your birthday. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you with it,” genuine. Of course he hadn’t meant to. It was a birthday, after all. In Daniel’s experience, birthdays were good things. Happy, if not always celebrated, occasions. Daniel’s mind latched on to something. “I didn’t expect you to be so much younger than me,” Richard snorted.

That must have been a little bit of a shock, for sure.

“That’s not. I don’t care if you know,” which was a bold faced lie and Daniel’s expression said he knew as much as well. Each and every time anyone had asked in the past Richard had lied about it. Usually given a date about three months earlier than whenever they were asking. Richard let his wince show. “Alright, I care. But not enough that I would have made you—how did you even find it out?” the only way would have been through the databases kept by the Farm and neither of them had the skills to. To get.

Daniel shifted midair. A few inches higher. Uneasy. Nervous. Looking at Richard like he wasn’t sure of what he was going to do next and wasn’t excited to find out. “Um,”

Don’t do it. Don’t reach in. Don’t push into his head that would be wrong, stay out and wait and give him the time to. Trust him. In. Out.

“You know how Ricardo seems to know everyone? Or you know, it feels like he knows at least one person no matter where he’s at?” not making eye contact and bobbing now with the cool wind. The breeze seemed determined to bite in.

Ah, beans. Well that was a horrifying way to start it off. “Yes. I’m aware,” Richard bit down on whatever it was still lurking in his lungs and rubbed his thumb over the back of Daniel’s hand.

“He knows someone who works security at this hotel. The one Senator Carmichael is staying at. And we went and they let us review some of the security footage We told them that there was a tip that Mad Dog was targeting the Senator because,” because he was. Everyone had seen the news about Senator Carmichael’s harrowing early morning encounter with Mad Dog. Read the expose. And Charge and Herald knew that Mad Dog had been talking with miss Ochoa about digging deeper through the Senator’s dirty laundry.

And Richard had asked Ricardo to look for any vibrations along his spider web of contacts. He just hadn’t anticipated both of them to be so willing to. Well. They weren’t exactly aiding and abetting. Not quite yet. But two of the city’s Rangers were sticking his neck out for him—even if they were doing their best to make it seem like they were hunting him down, there would be people who noticed. “And then she showed up. It. It is her, isn’t it? The woman you’ve talked about, from when you were,” Daniel’s voice dipped, as though she was waiting just around a corner to jump out and say boo.

“Regina,” Richard supplied, pumping as much poison into the name as he possibly could. Daniel flinched gently at the tone.

“It was obviously a planned meeting and even though we didn’t have any audio, they were discussing you,”

Ah. A horrifying middle to the story. Or maybe.

Was that good? Was it bad that Regina knew he was coming for her? A bleak, sinewy part of his core was pleased that she was aware he was out there. What he’d made of and for himself. The rest of him shrieked.

“There were people there with her—they tried to mess with the cameras but they missed one. Just at the right, er wrong angle, for us to see some of the paperwork they were reviewing. It had a picture of Sidestep in the files. And,” other pictures. Daniel was doing his best not to linger on them, but he’d seen enough. Broken body and oh. Oh. Well, one thing to know it had happened, another thing to know they’d taken pictures. Another thing entirely to see them. “I noticed the date of,” he trailed again, discomfort rising in a swell.

“Activation?” Richard offered, pushing his own memories down to be dealt with later. Regenes weren’t born, after all.

Daniel’s fingers came up and made air quotes. “Decanting,” he confirmed, the word making his face turn sour. There was a shallow pause as Daniel sank in the air, almost landing.

“When did this happen?” A critical piece of information. How long ago had.

“Two days ago,” Daniel offered back. The same day Daniel had told him that he and Ricardo wanted to go on a couple’s date. That they had already picked out a place to meet up.

“Well it’s done, I suppose,” the words tasted like stale vomit in his mouth, but they were true. Nothing to be done about it now. He ran a shaking hand through his hair and squeezed slightly, the tug anchoring him. Daniel squeezed his hand in sympathy. “Just have to make sure,” make sure of what? There was no way the Farm’s agents had missed that camera by accident. It had clearly been a trap to see if anyone was watching them. And they had fallen for it, practically tripped over themselves for the chance to spring it. They’d seen exactly what she had wanted them to see and only because the Farm had wanted them to see it. “Have to make sure they aren’t going to be able to get to you two,” a stupid thing to say. There was no way to make sure of it.

Only ways to guard against it.

Richard’s entire body shuddered as his spine ached. The instinct to run sang in the marrow his bones.

Daniel leaned in slightly. “Are you up to going back inside?” back to soft tones. Not even remotely. Not that it mattered.

“Sure,”

It did make him feel a little better to see Chen still glaring at Ort—at Ricardo when they came back inside. Ricardo was still leaned back in his chair, shameless. The smile somewhere between smug and sneering.

“There you are,” Ricardo’s grin shrank a few molars when they made eye contact. “What sort of stunt do you think you’re pulling, paying before I even have a chance to fight you for it?” his wallet was on the table and a sizeable tip had been wiggled under a water glass. He followed Richard’s gaze. “They said you already tipped but I know it wasn’t enough,” Richard felt the side of his mouth twist up. He’d tipped almost the same as what the meal was going to cost. One of the quiet perks of dirty money was not feeling any attachment to it.

“You’re in no position to be angry about stunts right now Ricardo,” Chen muttered, just tight enough and oh ho? What exactly was on that floppy disc? Beside him Ricardo straightened slightly and let the grin fall away entirely.

“We can finish that conversation back at my place, okay? Later.” there was a beat before Chen grunted in agreement, unsatisfied and doing nothing to dispel the tension that was suddenly acutely apparent between them. Daniel landed.

“Well this was nice,” he forced out a little cheer and it was almost enough to make Richard snort. Ricardo actually did.

“It was until we both ruined it,” still without a hint of guilt in his voice. Ricardo reached up and stroked his mustache in thought for a moment. “But there’s still time to rescue it. Or make it worse, knowing my luck. What do you say we all go back to my apartment and actually go over this all?” Richard’s stomach sank, his gaze darting to take in Chen at exactly the same time as Chen sent him a mildly mortified look. Chen’s jaw dropped and they both spoke at the same time.

“I don’t,”

“That’s probably not–,”

“I mean it’s starting to get late,”

“If something happens and we get a call,”

Daniel cut them off with a slightly hard, “I think that’s actually a really good idea, Ricardo. We’ll,” Richard’s mouth caught up with his mind.

“Our place. We. We should go to our place instead,” because at least there he knew every single inch and every carpet fiber and there were too many unknowns in Ricardo’s apartment. Especially now that two days had passed of the Farm possibly. No. Absolutely. Knowing that Ricardo and Daniel were on his side and. Chen’s eyebrows had risen in open surprise by the invitation. Daniel perked up at Richard’s apparent acceptance of his fate.

“Yeah! Plus, then you can both meet Edith!”


End file.
